I’m having a boot issue on Fedora 43 after updating the kernel from 6.18 to 6.19. Everything was working fine before the update.
After rebooting into kernel 6.19, the system fails to start properly. (Image below).
Is this a known issue with kernel 6.19?
How can I solve it? (My laptop is a Dell XPS 9310)
I’m really afraid of doing the next update, because of the boot loader shows only three kernel options: 6.19.13, 6.19.10 and 6.18.16, but only the oldest one works and it would disappear from the list.
Will changing the default kernel to an older version avoid it to be eliminated in the next update? It is already the last of the three options that Fedora keeps in the boot loader.
Does the problem related to Nvidia? Should I install something else? Is there any way to make the versions 6.19 work?
Personally, I have found Fedora Updates can be unpredictable! My post link goes on to explain why there can be issues with NVIDIA and Fedora. Are they related to your issues? For me, it was version 19.x.x mentioned in your post, very similar to an experience I had several times.
A good fix, if you are able, would be Claude. Open a session and cut and paste the error or photo. It will give you answers. Touchy subject, I know, but it got me out of my headaches. Good luck.
The tool is grubby Fedora’s command-line tool for managing boot entries.
No file editing required.
Step 1- List all installed kernels
Run this in the terminal to see every kernel entry and identify the one that works:
sudo grubby --info=ALL | grep title
You will see output like:
title=“Fedora Linux (6.19.6-200.fc43.x86_64) 43 (KDE Plasma)”
title=“Fedora Linux (6.18.16-200.fc43.x86_64) 43 (KDE Plasma)”
title=“Fedora Linux (6.18.10-200.fc43.x86_64) 43 (KDE Plasma)”
Step 2 - Set the working kernel as the default
Use the terminal to replace the version number below with the kernel you know works (the last one before the update that broke things):
sudo grubby --set-default /boot/vmlinuz-6.18.16-200.fc43.x86_64
Step 3 - Confirm the change
sudo grubby --default-kernel
Should return the path of the kernel you just set. Then reboot:
sudo reboot
Verify After Reboot
In Terminal, confirm you booted the correct kernel and NVIDIA is working:
#Check current kernel
uname -r
Print this post. It may save some of you from frustration after a Fedora update!
Holding the shift key displays boot options when rebooting. Select an earlier working driver. from those shown.
TIMED OUT waiting for device dev-gpt\x2dauto\x2droot.device
This means the new kernel can’t find your root partition at boot. Very common after a kernel update on Fedora. Nothing is broken permanently — easy fix.
I done it for you! good luck.
Fix — Boot into the old kernel
Reboot the machine
At the GRUB menu — press ESC or hold SHIFT to show the menu if it’s hidden
Select “Advanced options for Fedora”
Pick the 6.18 kernel entry
Boot normally — everything works as before
Then fix the 6.19 kernel
Once booted into 6.18, run:
bash
sudo dracut --force --kver 6.19.<whatever>
This rebuilds the initramfs for the new kernel so it can find your drives properly. Then reboot and try 6.19 again.
If that doesn’t work
bash
sudo dnf reinstall kernel-6.19*
This is a known Fedora issue — dracut initramfs sometimes doesn’t generate correctly for a new kernel, especially on Dell XPS hardware with certain NVMe configs. The old kernel is always kept so you’re never locked out
The Kernel you boot into, which will be a working kernel, will not be deleted on an update.
So try and boot with an older kernel at boot time, if you don’t see the list of kernels, press left shitf or esc on start u a few times.
Select the 6.18 kernel or anything older than the not-working 6.19 and then update again in a couple of weeks.
There are ways to keep more kernels but you should not need that.
Kernels not working are a kind of regular thing, normally is is a minor glitch, but if it happens again you could file a bug so your particular hardware will be addressed for regressions.
The dracut command didn’t solve, and the dnf reinstall returns an error Failed to resolve the transaction: Packages for argument ‘kernel-6.19.13-200.fc43.x86_64’ installed, but not available.
The latest kernel (6.19.13) just was released by fedora.
You should modify that command to sudo dnf reinstall kernel*6.19.13* --refresh so it avoids the attempt to reinstall the 6.19 kernel versions you already have but no longer available (6.19.10)
This is beginning to sound a bit like earlier problems with certain hardware unable to boot the 6.19 kernel and most of those were apparently solved by updating the bios for the laptop. Without knowing which bios version you currently have, the dell website shows this version as the latest for the (Dell XPS 9310 laptop)
Be aware that even if you follow the earlier suggestions to set the 6.18 kernel as default, installing or reinstalling a kernel will at present automatically reset the default kernel to the latest installed (index 0). This means that after doing the reinstall, should the newer kernel still not boot, you would need to repeat the steps to set the 6.18 kernel as default.
